Satanic Silver

In the United States, miners rely on their employers and/or unions to make conditions more like a workplace and less like a death trap. But in Bolivia, theres a different type of workers comp plan  devil worship. And in the eye-opening documentary Devils Miner, directors Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani get inside the devils layer known as the Cerro Rico silver mines, a place of work, worship, and worry.

If Satan worship in the workplace seems wrong, its actually the lesser of the films two evils. Whats worse is that two young brothers must work in the mines to support their fatherless family. The boys, 14-year-old Basilio and 12-year-old Bernardino, are well aware that working day and night in the dust-filled caves leads to an early death (read: silicosis). When not working, the brothers attend school, hoping to one day leave the mines for good. Until then, the boys give the devil offerings of coca leaves, cigarettes, alcohol, and  with the help of other miners and family members  a freshly sacrificed llama. What, did you think Satan was a vegetarian?